


The Gospel Truth, New Testament

by BooksandComicBooks



Series: Hades, Lord of Olympus [1]
Category: Hercules (1997)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Gen, Loving Marriage, Mind Manipulation, Protective Parents, Titans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24261775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooksandComicBooks/pseuds/BooksandComicBooks
Summary: The Fates are bored, and Hades gets caught in the middle. There's only one reason the God of death would actually bother with ruling Olympus. Along the way we get sass, a prophecy, and a Greek god who actually understands how prophecies work. There's just one little loophole that could make things a little more complicated than anticipated...
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Disney)
Series: Hades, Lord of Olympus [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1881073
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20





	The Gospel Truth, New Testament

The three Fates sat in their dark cave, spinning the thread of every person and otherworld being. They saw everything, past, present, and future. They knew every major event and most of the minor ones that would happen over the next millennia.

They’d seen a million versions of Good defeat Evil, and a million versions of Evil reign triumphant, from every era in time that was and was to come.

They sighed in unison. There were never any new stories. Immortality was beginning to weigh on them.

Then suddenly the youngest of the trio squealed. The other sisters came closer. In her hands lay a perfectly ordinary thread; gods and mortals were practically indistinguishable in the grand scheme.

At first the older sisters were confused. But then they saw the snag.

Usually they were impartial. They existed to record events, never to direct them.

But snags in a thread were entirely different matters; they meant that reality could branch off into a different direction. They meant the inevitable was no longer such a sure thing. 

They tugged on the loose filaments and began weaving a new story. Under the watch of their one shared eye, a new prophecy made itself known. The sisters looked at each other with their empty eye sockets and cackled.

**

Meanwhile, far above the realm of the Fates and the realm of mortals, there was a birthday party for a newborn god.

“At least this one is legitimate,” muttered Artemis to Athena over a plate of tiny sandwiches, “Not another one of Zeus’s half-mortals. Hera looked like she was so close to kicking him out last time.”

The goddess of wisdom hummed vaguely in response, deciding to remain silent on that front.

“Hey,” Artemis perked up, “Isn’t that Hades?”

Ares, standing nearby, practically wrenched his head around to look. The flames on his sword that matches the ones in his eyes glittered in anticipation of a good fight.

Hades, lurking in the shadows, ignored them. His eyes darted around Olympus before landing on Persephone. The lovely goddess of spring was dancing with the muses and conjuring flowers to entertain the little baby of honour. Hades rushed over to his wife, brushing aside a nymph on his way.

“Perse, my sweet, I’ve missed you…” he whispered, reaching for her hand.

She turned around, surprised, and smiled up at him. “I missed you too,” she said, reaching up to his face. “It’s nice to see you on Mount Olympus in the summer.”

He hesitated. He had thought she was mad at him. But as far as he knew, it was still, supposedly, winter…

“Are you,” he paused, “are you coming back to me soon?” he asked.

She frowned, puzzled. “Of course, you know how it is. My six months here are almost up.”

He felt the fire on his head brighten with repressed anxiety. “It’s been nearly a year, Perse.”

She frowned more and slowly pulled back. Her eyes searched his. “Don’t lie to me, husband. You know our deal with my mother.”

“Indeed,” said Demeter, stepping forward between her daughter and Hades. She gave him a satisfied smirk.

“I _know_ the contract, Demeter. What did you do?” Hades snarled, barely containing his rage.

Demeter ignored him long enough to call up the muses. They strode up to Persephone, singing their siren song, and danced away with her. Hades felt his mind go sluggish as he listened to them.

He shook his head to clear it. “You cast a SPELL?!?!” he roared.

Demeter fanned her face delicately. “ _I_ certainly wouldn’t do that to my own daughter.”

“No,” Hades snarled, “You had Mnemosyne and her muse children do it _for_ you. Give her back, or Titans help you for breaking your promise.”

“I am _keeping_ my promise,” Demeter sniffed. “As long as she is here, the summer continues. I can’t help it if our bargain was poorly worded… In my favour.”

“You want to play a game of technicalities with the god of the _DEAD?!_ ” He took a deep breath and smoothed back his flaming hair. “Fine. It’s fine. My wife has forgotten what day it is, but she still remembers me.”

Demeter rolled her eyes wryly. It certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.

“You won’t have her for much longer.” Hades grinned maliciously. “Now that you’ve broken our bargain, _technically,_ I won’t have to give her back come next summer.”

Demeter arched her eyebrows. “You think she’d stand for that?” She raised a hand to a delicate bloom. In a soft voice she said, “You can’t keep a flower away from sunlight too long or it withers…” and snapped her fan in Hades’ face. “No matter how much she… loves you,” she sneered, “she’ll always belong up here, in the sun. With her family.” And then, dramatically, Demeter turned and walked away.

Hades practically combusted right there. A few cherubs flew by to clear out the flowers before they could wilt in their vases. Apollo started grabbing skewers to cook them over Hades head, but he wasn’t fast enough. As quick as he was to enrage, Hades also knew how to cool his temper.

Demeter did have a point, unfortunately. Persephone was the goddess of spring and she would want, and deserved, to spend time above ground.

But Hades was a god of inevitability. He got to everyone, in the end.

**

He needed a plan, and one was forming rather quickly in his mind. But he would need to be careful. His wife was, after all, about 80% of his impulse control, so he needed to slow down, ask the right people for advice, and think calmly.

“Pain! Panic!” he shouted for his minion. He heard the clitter-clatter of taloned feet running towards him, and suppressed a sigh as they, inevitably, tripped over their tails and came crashing down onto each other.

“Reporting for duty!” they said in unison, standing quickly in salute. Hades rolled his eyes.

“Call up the Fates. I have a little job I want to ask them about.”

“Oh, they’re already here,” said Panic, “They’ve been waiting in your lobby for…”

“WHAT!” Hades roared. “And you didn’t CALL ME!?”

The duo quavered and started sobbing. “We’re unworthy-y-y-y! »

Hades sighed and cooled down. “Fine, it’s fine. I’ll go see them.”

He strode into his lobby. “Ladies!” he said with his most charming, toothy smile. “Lovely as always. Sorry to be late.”

“You aren’t,” said the eldest, “We knew when you’d arrive.”

“Right, seeing the future and all that,” Hades muttered, pausing at his desk with a map of Creation, from Olympus to the Underworld. “You see, I was just getting back from a party on Olympus, you know, Zeus just had…”

“A bouncing baby brat,” the weird sisters said in unison.

“…Right… But he’s not the main attraction here, you see, my wife got trapped up there, my mother-in-law is being… horrible,” Hades flicked at a figurine of a centaur, “and I’m starting to think that the only way to fix both problems at once would be…”

“For you to take over Olympus,” chirped the youngest.

“Oh, something like that,” Hades grinned. He grabbed the figurine from his map table to gesture with. “So I’ll cut to the chase. Is it possible?”

The sisters made a show of hesitating, barely holding back toothy grins. “We’re not supposed to tell,” the oldest said.

“There are consequences to knowing your future,” the middle sister said.

“However,” said the youngest, “there is a prophecy.”

“A prophecy, eh?” Hades said. “Well I can assure you lovely ladies,” he said, giving them his most charming smile, “I would never go against a prophecy.” He clearly thought he was being slick. The Fates cackled. Perfect.

“In 18 years, precisely,” they began, forming images in the air out of smoke, “the planets will align ever so nicely.” Hades watched as, from Mercury to Pluto, they did just that.

“The time to act will be at hand, unleash the Titans, your monstrous band!” From the depths of the deepest ocean, monstrous giants pulled themselves up to the shore, standing almost as tall as Mount Olympus itself.

Hades winced. Controlling them wasn’t going to be easy. They were older than even the Gods themselves; it had taken Zeus the better part of a millennia to stop their reign of chaos. But, they were the only thing that could…

“Then the once-proud Zeus will fall, and you, Hades, will rule all!”

“Ha ha, yes!” Hades fist-pumped.

“A word of caution to this tale,” the oldest sister interrupted, “should Hercules fight you, you will fail.”

And with that final pronouncement, the Fates faded away in a swirl of shadow, cackling openly.

There was a moment of silence.

Then, “That LITTLE BRAT is going to keep me from the love of my life!?” Hades roared. He tossed the figurine at the wall, smashing it into tiny pieces. He fumed for a few moments before breathing deeply and smoothing his hair back. “I need to get rid of that kid. Pain! Panic!” He hollered.

“At your command, sir!” the two minions announced as they ran in.

Hades began to pace. “If I wanted a kid gone, what’s the best way to do that?”

“Ooh!” Pain waved his hand. “I know! You kill him!”

“Ah,” Hades stopped and waggled a finger at him. “But that’s what they always do in prophecies. They _think_ they have an easy way to get rid of their problem, and they _think_ they can keep the bad parts of the prophecy from happening, and it inevitably _causes_ the prophecy to come true. Oedipus, for example,” Hades shuddered. “Now that could have been entirely avoided if his father had been a little smarter.”

“So,” Panic said slowly, “we.. _don’t_ kill the kid?”

“Obviously,” Hades threw his hands up. “Those prophecies always come true. We can’t stop them. But…” He held up a finger and grinned shrewdly, “we can postpone them. Maybe even indefinitely.”

“Ok…” his minions were clearly lost, but they were there mostly to be an audience to his thinking out loud. Nothing helps a problem-solving drama queen more than a performance.

“What we need to do…” Hades thought, “is to keep the kid from fighting me in 18 years. So in 18 years we get him sent away somewhere, just long enough for me to put Zeus and Demeter in their place. What we need is a good plan.” He paused. “What would Persephone do?”

“The Lady would tell you not to hurt him,” Panic spoke up eagerly. Unhelpfully.

“And to give him a choice,” Pain added. He wrung his hands gleefully. “It’s always better when they inflict it on themselves…”

“She would, yes, hmm, make him believe he was acting on his own will…” Hades mused. “She’d also tell me to think of the consequences.” He gave a small smile. Then he frowned. “But _she_ was good at figuring all that out! RAAAAAA!!!!”

“Maybe you could ask her yourself,” Pain said.

Hades’ fire diminished. “Why didn’t _I_ think of that.”

**

Most of the gods were still lounging around the clouds of Mount Olympus when Hades returned. Delectable foods were still being served and the muses could still be heard singing in the distance. Hades tried to ignore the taunts coming from the Olympians and rushed straight towards the gardens, where he was sure to find his beloved.

And her mother.

“Out of my way, mother in law,” Hades snarled.

“You can’t take her back,” she said.

“I’m allowed to talk to her,”

“Hades!” Persephone squealed in delight from behind her mother. “You rarely come visit!” She held his hands and stared up at him, a big smile on her face. Demeter huffed and walked away.

Persephone watched her leave from the corner of her eye. She breathed out once she was out of ear-shot. “It’s good to see you, dear. Mother’s been a bit crazier than usual lately.”

Hades smirked wryly. “She’s been plotting again.”

Persephone looked at him curiously. “Has she? I haven’t noticed anything.”

“No, you wouldn’t have…” Hade thought. “Perse, love, I need your help for something.”

She bounced lightly. “Anything.”

“I need to figure out how to keep someone from interrupting me. For a plot of my own.”

“Hmm…” she mussed. “You need a distraction.”

“Something to keep a young boy occupied so he doesn’t step in my way.”

“What kind of plot?” she asked.

“…Something that can’t be stopped, one way or another.”

“Hades!” she exclaimed. “You’ve been listening to prophecies! What are you doing?” She stared at him intensely, warry that he might be trying something dangerous.

“Just a little something to remind your mother who she’s dealing with,” he reassured her with the barest hint of a malicious grin.

She smiled lovingly but frowned at him. “No killing,” she cautioned.

“Promise,” he said.

“And nothing that involves messing with the agreement.”

“Only as far as she’s messed with it, Perse.”

Now Persephone tilted her head. “What did she do?”

“I’ll tell you in 18 years, Perse my sweet.”

She closed her eyes and tried to solve it for herself. “…There’s a spell isn’t there?”

Hades shouldn’t have been surprised. She _was_ trained by the witching community after all.

“Yes.” He held her hands tightly in his.

She nodded. “I felt something weird lately.” She looked up at him, eyes worried but determined. “What do you need?”

“A child needs to be not-here in 18 years,” he said. “And I think the best way to do that would be to manipulate him so that he leaves willingly.”

She nodded pensively. “You need to gain his trust.”

“You know that’s not my specialty.”

“No, but it is mine,” she said. “Who is it?”

“Hercules,” he grinned. Here was the reason he loved his wife so much; they naturally became partners in everything.

Persephone thought for a few seconds, and her smile widened. “You need to visit more often,” she said. “I might forget, so I’ll tell you now; we have to be the best aunt and uncle to him. He needs to like us and trust us implicitly, and we start while he’s still a baby. But you promise me now, Hades,” she said sternly, “he never gets hurt in this.”

“It’s not my business to _prevent_ pain,” he whined.

“Hades.”

He sighed. “Fine, fine, I promise not to be the direct cause of his death.”

She patted his face, satisfied. “Now, I think we need to change the subject. I can feel the fog climbing up my mind again.”

As if on cue, Hades began to hear the muses in the distance, “and that’s the gospel truth…”. Demeter must have only left to get them. He wavered, holding onto Persephone’s hand. “I’ll be back,” he said.

She smiled distantly. “I’ll be here.”

**

The next few years were spent, on intervals, at Mount Olympus. Hercules might have been a bit of a muscle-head, or as Hades would insist, a complete idiot, but he still enjoyed spending time with Auntie Persephone and Unca’ Hades. They let him play with hellhounds, for one. And the spring goddess was especially nurturing in his early life, despite that she kept forgetting how old he was growing.

There were a few moments where Hades had brief thoughts of giving up. Like the thousandth time little Hercules went for a hug and accidentally crushed a few bones. Hades knew it was partly his own fault; he shouldn’t have downplayed it the first time the toddler got scared by the creaks and cracks of ribs being bent much further back than they were supposed to. “Ha, ha, no harm done,” he’d said. He would often be looking back at that moment as one of the biggest missed teachable moments, as Persephone liked to call them.

Because he did try to teach. As the god of the underworld, he also happened to be the god of wealth, which made him excellent at math.

“So if you have three apples, and give one to your Pegasus, how many apples do you have?” He asked one day.

“Four!” the child had proclaimed proudly.

Hades tilted his head down and tried not to say what he was thinking. “You have,” he insisted through gritted teeth, “three apples.” He handed Hercules three apples. “Then I,” he pointed slowly, “take one. How many apples do you have?” He gestured to the two that were still in the boy’s hands.

Hercules looked at them closely, then at the apple Hades had taken. “Three. That one’s mine,” he said.

Hades tried very. Very hard. To not blow up right then and there.

All in all, it worked. Zeus never suspected a thing. And Hades got to spend more time with Persephone, though she seemed to become more confused the longer time passed. “Why are you here so often?” she asked once, about 12 years into their separation. “The Underworld can’t run itself without you.”

Hades didn’t know what to say then. He just smiled reassuringly and told her that his people had it taken care of.

He hoped that she would still have memories of these 18 years when it was over.

**

Hades managed to pull her aside halfway through the 17th year. “I hope you remember what I told you, sugar-lips,” he said, “because those planets are almost ready. The family trusts us, he trusts us, we can send him anywhere. I thought Tartarus.”

Tartarus would take at least a week of travel to reach, no matter where they were in the world.

Persephone scrunched her nose, looking pensive. Or like she was trying to work through the fog around her mind. After a few moments, she had it.

“Right,” she said, “Tartarus.” She frowned and thought for a moment. “You know, he likes a girl…”

“Of course he likes someone, he’s 17,” Hades rolled his eyes, “That all teens ever think about.”

Persephone smacked him. “As if you’re any different,” she said with a smirk. “What I mean is that we could send him away _with_ someone, it would be easier to keep him distracted. Besides, a girl might help to mellow his fighting instincts.”

Hades conceded. “What’s her name?”

**

“Meg!” Hercules shouted excitedly. He ran over and pulled her into a tight hug to spin her around.

“Yeesh,” Hades said, looking on. “Would you look at that ridiculous sap. And she’s a _mortal,_ too!”

Persephone just smiled knowingly. “It’s so nice of you to send them both off on a trip. I remember my first time abroad…” She trailed her hand over Hades’ arm.

He grinned. “I _literally_ took you to another world.”

She hummed. “Maybe we should go on a trip sometime. I hear Egypt is doing something very artistically geometric in their architecture…”

**

The planets aligned on a warm summer’s day.

Cosmic rays beamed through the atmosphere, shooting a power all the way through the ocean where the Titans were kept. All Hades had to do was tweak a few spells, rip out a few magical locks, and bada-bing bada-boom…

He stood perched over the edge of the Titans’ jail, looking down at them with a maniacal grin spreading over his face. There was something outright… _intoxicating_ about having control over such enormous beings.

“Who was the oppressor who sent you here?” Hades called down.

“ZEUUUUSS…” they growled.

“And what should we do about this terrible injustice?” he shouted gleefully.

“FREEze hIM,” said the ice storm. “DROWN HIM!” said the lava. “DESTROY HIM,” the rest all said. They pulled themselves out of the depths of the ocean and towered over Hades. He had to fly his chariot up for 5 minutes before he could see their faces again. One side of his body felt like it was burning even hotter than his own flames, and another side felt like the pins and needles of early frostbite. His chariot rumbled so much under his feet that he almost fell off. He ignored it, only holding on tighter.

“You’re all PERFECT! Follow me!” Hades declared, on the verge of cackling.

**

With Hercules already away for 2 days, it was easier than Hades could have thought possible to immobilize the entire Olympus crew. Zeus never even had a chance to grab his thunder bolts before the molten lava had him encapsulated.

That was the best way to trap a god; most of the Olympians were encased in molten rock that had been re-solidified; the muses, in particular, had been put out of commission in a block of ice as clear as glass. Even with expressions of frozen horror, they were still so beautiful that any sculptor would have wept with joy.

For Demeter, Hades allowed himself a little treat: he left her head exposed so that she could hear what Persephone would have to say after the spell had worn off.

Slowly, Persephone blinked away the last of it, and looked up at her mother.

“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you,” she asked.

Demeter’s face twisted and she started to say something apologetic, but that was when Hades jumped in. “Freeze!” he shouted gleefully. Demeter was instantly encased in ice.

“And now, my dear,” said Hades, taking a giggling Persephone by the hand, “I think we’re long overdue for some quality time together.”

Far below them, the worshiping mortals screamed as their villages were torn apart by every natural disaster imaginable.

**

Persephone agreed to not interfere with the Titans until Hercules got back. In a way it was symbolic; after 18 years of summertime, here was a cataclysmic event to mark the beginning of a new winter for the mortals.

Although Hades would say that there was another cataclysmic event on Olympus, right before Persephone blushed and smacked him.

Persephone went ahead and reorganized the throne room, making space for fresh flowers that bloomed cheerfully in the sun. She made a shaded space above the throne for Hades (he was known to burn easily) and brought up their dogs for a playday. The couple spent the next few days lounging and enjoying their new dominion.

After a week Persephone looked down on the people below. “Maybe,” she hedged, “we should think about calling them back.”

“That would only make Hercules’s job easier. I thought you liked staying up here.”

“I like being with you, darling.” She reached up to touch his face. “Didn’t you have a back-up plan for getting them back under control?”

“Who said I ever lost control?” Hades asked defensively.

She just stared at him.

“Alright, alright, so I lost control,” he said. “But maybe it’s not so bad to stay up here, just the two of us, we can let the mortals fend for themselves. I mean if they all die, then I don’t have to watch the gates of the Underworld any more…”

“Hades.”

“…Fine, the Fates said that if Hercules fought me, he’d win. Like father like son, either of them can put the Titans back where they belong.”

Persephone pointed at the ruins below. “I don’t think that’s going to be very easy. Especially since he’s not a full god.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Hercules is half-mortal.”

“No he isn’t,” Hades said quickly, sweating. He felt the situation starting to really slip out of his control. “How do you know?”

“His magic was never very strong,” she said. “I think at most, he could lift things that would be impossible for a human. Maybe handle magical tools and some lightning. But he definitely couldn’t handle the god-level spells and magical strength required here.”

Hades started pacing and muttering. “No, no,” he said, turning back to her. Then he turned away again. “No, but… no…”

“Husband, you’re scaring me.”

“ _I’M_ scaring me!” he said. “I know I said it would be nice to rule over Olympus, but this, this, this is _madness_!” He threw his hands in the air. “What if the Titans get bored and try to come after us? And our _worshipers_ …” He started pacing again.

“No, honey,” Persephone tried to soothe him. “It’ll all work out, you’ll see, the Fates wouldn’t do this on purpose. When Hercules gets home with Megara, everything will go back to normal.”

**

Hercules, true to form, did try to fight off the Titans as soon as he got home and realized what had happened. (More specifically, Meg figured out what happened, then explained it to him.)

The Fates watched it all unfold, hunched over their strings in their cave. They cackled gleefully; not _one_ of the players in their little game had figured out the loophole. Hercules had to fight _Hades_ in an epic battle in order for the Titans to go back to their prison, and according to their new strings, that wouldn’t happen for a very long time.

The Fates were set for another millennia of epic stories, all of them completely new. “Snip snip” went their scissors as they cut the life-threads of innumerable victims of flooding and hurricanes; that would simplify their spinning for a while.

They watched as Hercules and Megara began to realise that, since they aged, they needed to hide out in the Underworld to keep themselves from dying before they could fix things. They quickly became the new king and queen of death.

The cave of the sisters echoed loudly with their cackling.

Persephone flourished like the spring flower she was, having spent so much time above ground. She kept the chaos of the Titans to a minimum with her healing powers, pushing for regrowth every time they destroyed something. A new and powerful cult began to worship her more than ever.

And Hades… Hades sat under his shade, on his thrown. Mostly he sat chewing his lip in contemplation. He had never seen his wife more beautiful than she was now, completely in her element and unrestrained by her mother.

But good Gods, at what cost.


End file.
